Dave Boze called my attention to this article on NRO’s The Corner. And I got thinking that it seems to be the case for a few different examples of the genre.

Slasher flicks: break society’s rules, and you die a horrible death.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This is where I’m torn. Kevin McCarthy’s performance in the original was a masterful performance in the Cold War allegory, but Donald Sutherland’s performance in the 1978 remake was chilling, as it made you fear creeping conformity.

But it seems to me that the best example is the modern-day zombie movie, such as the recent remake of Dawn of the Dead. People forced to take responsibility for themselves and work together reluctantly, as they arm themselves and shoot what used to be friends and neighbors who now will tear them apart in a murderous rage to obtain something they lack. Head shots seem to work surprisingly well against these beings who are no longer using them for anything else.

Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1, and 46 states have widespread flu activity.

While no one likes hearing about people dying, except Democratic lawmakers who push Unconstitutional Health Insurance Takeover plans, replete with bureaucratic panels who will decide if we are too old to receive the care our doctors prescribe, or if the care is simply too expensive, the fact is that this is not a startlingly high number for flu deaths. Spend a quick few minutes with a search engine, and you will find that in a typical year in the U.S., the numbers of deaths attributed to influenza number in the tens of thousands. The CDC categorizes these deaths with pneumonia, so it is hard to say what their total is, but other sources put the number between 30,000 and 66,000 deaths annually.

When taken in this context, it hardly seems to be an “emergency”. So what does declaring it an emergency get the Manchurian Presidunt?

Again, from the article:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius now has authority to bypass federal rules when opening alternative care sites, such as offsite hospital centers at schools or community centers if hospitals seek permission.

Some hospitals have opened drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat swine flu patients. The idea is to keep infectious people out of regular emergency rooms and away from other sick patients.

Hospitals could modify patient rules — for example, requiring them to give less information during a hectic time — to quicken access to treatment, with government approval, under the declaration.

It also addresses a financial question for hospitals — reimbursement for treating people at sites not typically approved. For instance, federal rules do not allow hospitals to put up treatment tents more than 250 yards away from the doors; if the tents are 300 yards or more away, typically federal dollars won’t go to pay for treatment.

So far, so good…and then a clue:

The national emergency declaration was the second of two steps needed to give Sebelius extraordinary powers during a crisis.

On April 26, the administration declared swine flu a public health emergency, allowing the shipment of roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually needed them. At the time, there were 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. of people recovering easily. There was no vaccine against swine flu, but the CDC had taken the initial step necessary for producing one.

So this got me thinking, “What other powers would the blood-money grubbing HHS Secretary have?”

I don’t know that I have satisfied myself as to the answer, but I did find a copy of the National Strategy on Pandemic Flu. It was appropriately vague. Then I found a presentation on the applicable federal law (pay attention to pages 56 to 76) Of more concern was the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, which is the model language drafted by the CDC for review and adoption by the individual states.

Under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, upon the declaration of a “public health emergency,” governors and public health officials would be empowered to:

1.Force individuals suspected of harboring an “infectious disease” to undergo medical examinations.
2.Track and share an individual’s personal health information, including genetic information.
3.Force persons to be vaccinated, treated, or quarantined for infectious diseases.
4.Mandate that all health care providers report all cases of persons who harbor any illness or health condition that may be caused by an epidemic or an infectious agent and might pose a “substantial risk” to a “significant number of people or cause a long-term disability.” (Note: Neither “substantial risk” nor “significant number” are defined in the draft.)
5.Force pharmacists to report any unusual or any increased prescription rates that may be caused by epidemic diseases.
6.Preempt existing state laws, rules and regulations, including those relating to privacy, medical licensure, and–this is key–property rights.
7.Control public and private property during a public health emergency, including pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, nursing homes, other health care facilities, and communications devices.
8.Mobilize all or any part of the “organized militia into service to the state to help enforce the state’s orders.”
9.Ration firearms, explosives, food, fuel and alcoholic beverages, among other commodities.
10.Impose fines and penalties to enforce their orders.

Now between extensive quarantine powers, and states that could have provisions 6-10 of the above list on their books, it is enough to say “Yeah. I can see how this certainly is a crisis that Komisar Emanuel and the rest of the O Crew just might want to take advantage of. You might never know when that awful Swine Flu might strike the red states…say right after passage of an illegal Health Insurance Takeover Bill, maybe?”

Just sayin’, s’all. Maybe you’re still the trusting sort. I’m not anymore. When a snake pokes its snout into my life and says “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”, I watch it very closely, and start wondering if I can cut it’s head off before it bites me.

H/t to the loverly SoHoS for the second image of Dear Leader.
Cross-posted at Taxes, Stupidity, and Death.

Reporter: I just want to know where, in your opinion, does the Constitution give specific authority for Congress to give an individual mandate for health insurance?

Leahy: What — we have plenty of authority. Are you saying there is no authority?

Reporter: I’m asking –

Leahy: Why would you say there is no authority? I mean, there’s no question there’s authority. Nobody questions that.

Reporter: But where — I mean, which –

Leahy: Where do we have authority to set speed limits on an interstate highway?

Reporter: Well, the states do that.

Leahy: No, no, the federal government does that.

Now, I’ve never considered Leahy to be the Senate’s brightest light on hs best day, but this demonstrates that it never even occurred to him that there might be a limit on Congress’ authority to do what they are proposing. Arrogant, presumptive foolishness. Between the ones who know exactly what they are doing and why it is a problem, and the ones like Leahy who never even had a thought that this might exceed their authority, we are on a fast track to chaos in this country.

The Republicans and FOX News [Wait! I thought that Dear Leader and the O Crew had declared that FOX isn’t a news organization? Uh oh. I guess someone isn’t getting invited to the next state dinner at the White House.] are not enemies of America, considering that both stand firm against the administration’s UnConstitutional health insurance takeover proposal. Enemies of this country don’t support the Constitution and the “essential constraints” that the Founding Fathers built in to prevent the government from going all nanny on us and bringing us the CHANGE! of “economic and social justice” that you numbskulls seem determined to force down our throats.

The Republicans and FOX News are not the enemies of health care. They are opposed to a massive government expansion that can only be brought about through prohibitive costs maintained by a confiscatory tax scheme, and that by its very nature will restrict individual liberties, and restrict freedom of choice in ways that the government simply has no authority to assert.

The Republicans and FOX News are not the enemies of education. They simply realize that despite the fact that the federal government has over time usurped power over the field of education that rightly belongs to the states and their subject governments, there is no Constitutional authority for the federal government to continually interfere in education and foist a politically correct agenda onto the American Peoples’ children, nor is there any legal justification to supplant the parents’ rightful opinions for their own.

The Republicans and FOX News are not the enemies of peace, and unlike many Democrats who foolishly believe that dialogue and appeasement are successful cornerstones of foreign policy with brutal and determined regimes who seek to obliterate other nations and cultures, they recognize that the only peace that will ever be extended from the hands of such wretched hives of scum and villany will be the peace of the grave. Looking this stark reality squarely in the eyes has allowed them a clarity and grim resolve to make the tough decisions to engage such threats directly before they become emboldened by indecision and an unwillingness to make hard choices in order to preserve the safety of our people and our allies. That means accepting and exercising the moral authority to put the men and women of our armed forces in harm’s way, with the sure and terrible knowledge that some will be killed, or forever maimed in body or in spirit. But in the age of an all volunteer military, it is also done with the knowledge that the men and women who are under orders have put themselves there willingly, and with the full knowledge of the potential outcomes.

These brave people do this not because they have no other options, as Senator and noted idiot John F. Kerry has so condescendingly asserted. They do this because they love their country and are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to help preserve it. Republicans and FOX News, unlike the Democrats and their enablers and fellow travellers in the old media, can truly appreciate the depth of this committment and sacrifice, consequently, fight wars with the intent of winning them, so as not to sacrifice such courage and dedication in vain. They do this without specious and whining claims about “messes left by their predecessors”, or taking weeks to make a decision so as to be in line with however the alpha sheep have caused the winds to blow that particular week. In short, they believe in leadership, not self-aggrandizing speechifying into every open microphone about their troubles.

Alan, put simply, you are a detestable human being and a small man. I don’t mean short, I mean that the man that you have become will never cast a long shadow, the likes of which have been the historical hallmarks of those who have walked the halls of Washington D.C., and upheld the values set forth in the Constitution, rather than constantly whipping up hatred and envy into a potent and unjustified sense of entitlement among those that your party has made dependent on government over the decades. Enjoy your fifteen minutes Alan, because as times get tougher due to the fiscally irresponsible programs like the ones you so vigorously support, people will come to recognize that you are like a toddler finger painting with his own feces, and they will pass you by in search of serious leaders instead of self-serving partisan hacks.

1. The bubble-headed bleach blond who says “The White House did just e-mail saying that interaction with Jake Tapper was not heated…”

2. And the idea that the White House will email MessNBC talking heads during the broadcast, but won’t dial that number to the phone in Glenn Beck’s TV studio to address his many “falsehoods” and “distortions”.

It is shocking that the MessNBC commentators will allow themselves to purposely be used as the mouthpiece for the O Crew and still consider themselves to be a “news organization”, rather than a television station that pushes a certain viewpoint, and even more shocking that Obama, a narcisist’s narcisist will not take advantage of the opportunity Mr. Beck has so graciously given to him and his administration.

My conclusion: Yes, Virginia, there really are bolsheviks in the West Wing bathrooms, and they are most likely wiping up the aftereffects of their frenzied excitement at having to opportunity to bring their revolution to our country through the tyranny of regulation, because the marketplace of ideas has left them without currency every single time.

I don’t question their patriotism. They don’t have any. And the minute that the great (in his own mind) Constitutional Scholar makes serious moves against the constraints on government’s ability to “give” us “social and economic justice” that the Founding Fathers built into the Constitution, it will be time to introduce the Fist-Bumper-In-Chief, his Inner Circle, and the various assorted hangers-on and lou-czars to the dustbin of history.

The way things are going, I’m starting to believe that “Never Again” will have special meaning to our posterity, as well.

"I want these “…and I’m a communist” dumbshits to have a Coming to Jesus moment that they will NEVER forget. I want them staring in to the eyes of every American who knows that government has very specifically designated roles, and are fed-up to their eyeballs with the overeaching, paternalistic, oppressive monster that the Left (with help from the establishment Right) set loose on us. I want those greedy, lazy, control-freaky bastards quaking with fear when they are met with an electorate determined to wrest their liberties, including the right to fail, back from a government that would enslave us all to the service of a soul-killing mediocrity. I want their asses so horrifiyingly and memorably whipped that the mere memory will cow a century’s worth of socialist/communist/marxist acoyltes into an ashamed silence."
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"When a strict interpretation of the Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are allowed to control its meaning, we no longer have a Constitution, we are under the government of individual men, who for the time being have power to declare what the Constitution is according to their own views of what it ought to mean."--Justice Curtis, Dissent, Dred Scott v. Sanford

"The very idea of power, and the right of the people to establish government, presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government. All obstructions to the execution of its laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberations and actions of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency."- George Washington

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
-Plato

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
-Plato